Hector Medina
The right hand of Pancho Mendoza and a guerilla warfare prodigy, Hector Medina is among the most dangerous men in Northern Tamaulipas. Known as El Lobo del Este, The Wolf of the East, this farmer was among the first to take up arms with La Legión de la Gente to fight for a new Communist utopia in post-War Mexico. Skilled with fist, rifle, and knife, Medina is the top lieutenant of the Communist militia and considered to be among the greatest hopes it has to liberate La Ciudadela and begin the full-scale revival of Marxism in Latin America. Biography Early Life Hector Medina was born in the small border town of Pocas Plantas during the autumn of 2249. The fourth child of a poor dirt farmer. He grew up working dawn to dusk to grow tomatoes, corn, potatoes, and wheat in the hot Mexican sun. He only would rest on Sundays to hear the sermon at the church. Life was hard in Pocas Plantas between worrying about Comancheros or if the crops would come in. Surplus was rare and meat was rarer, chickens were reserved for Christmas and Easter and other meats like squirrel were rarely affordable to the Medina family. Occasionally he would hunt with an old .22 varmint rifle, however ammunition was always expensive due to the lack of caravans in Pocas Plantas and when it was plentiful it was normally his father who did the hunting. Medina was always a strong boy, large and tall. He was built for the hard-working environment he grew up in. He went through adolescence with no formal education and was barely literate. However, he had a strong back and that was all that was needed in Pocas Plantas. His father died of dysentery when he was fifteen and he became head of the household as his siblings were either weaker than him or gone from Pocas Plantas. His mother died a year after her husband, leaving Hector to look out for the house and leaving him in charge of the family land. Marriage When he was seventeen in 2266 he married to Juanita Catherine Pastrana who he took in to live with him and two of his siblings on the sixty acres of land he had inherited. Within four months they had their first child on the way, Juan Jose Medina. By the time he was nineteen he had a daughter, Anna Maria Medina. Being a father at such a young age only increased his hardworking responsible character as he worked the family farm with his wife and younger brothers by day and tended to his children in the evenings before going to sleep. He loved his children incessantly and began to want something more for them than the physically taxing work of being a dirt farmer all their lives, toiling in the hot sun all day long and coming in at sundown too tired to move. Thus when he was twenty in 2270 and a travelling militia leader came to Pocas Plantas promising a way to make a better future for his students, the young family man signed on. La Legión de la Gente It was early in 2270, several months after Harland Ross had killed Benedicto Aguado the Comanchero King in the battle of Hidalgo, Texas. However Ross the soon to be famous lawman was not the sole leader of the anti-comanchero force in the fight, there was another man, Pancho Mendoza. Mendoza in his time had been a card house owner, a bandito, and a drover. But now he was keeping up what he thought he had started in Hidalgo with Ross when the two led La Legión de la Gente, The People's Legion to reclaim the town. It was after the battle that the two generals had a falling out, Ross believed the militia ought to be disbanded and replaced with a provisional police force. Mendoza, a firm Marxist who founded the legion as a communist group believed that it ought to assume control of Hidalgo and begin a Communist state. Ross believed it to be gambling the future they had fought so hard for and disdained the idea. Thus Mendoza rounded up thirty or so diehard followers and left Hidalgo, going down to Mexico to spread the word of Communism in small towns like Pocas Plantas. Mendoza rode into town flying a Communist banner with thirty odd men and women marching behind him armed with rifles and pistols. He stood up on a soap box and began to preach his message and flirt with young women in the cantina. Most of the town would come to hear this odd stranger and reactions were mixed. Most were skeptical and doubtful of this man's leftist rhetoric. Others responded with hostility and attempted not only to run him out of town but to tar and feather him. Many simply regarded him as a loon. But Medina took to Mendoza's message like a fly to honey. He heard Mendoza preach of a new type of community where all would be treated equally and work to the greatest of their ability and receive according to their knees. Where healthcare would be free, where protection would be provided, and where education and opportunity for children would not be a privilege for those few elite but a right for all. It was a hard decision to make, to leave his family behind, but he felt that if he did not that he would be dooming his children to the same hard and painful life that he had lived as a farmer. Thus he bought a rifle, packed a bag, and kissed his family goodbye to march off with Mendoza. But months later he would find himself in the fight that La Legión was raised for. A fight against the powerful King Cristobol of La Ciudadela, La Guerra de la Ciudadela. La Guerra de la Ciudadela Beginning Stages La Ciudadela, The Citadel was the perfect enemy of a communist paramilitary. It was a feudal society where serf paisanos outnumbered their noble overlords four to one. The nobility enjoyed a life of leisure in their bunker while the paisanos labored day and night with hardly any rights. While the new Rey Cristobol had made reforms to many oppressions instituted by his father, conditions were still atrocious. It was here that Pancho Mendoza decided he would wage his war. On October 1st, 2270 he sent a rider into La Ciudadela who read a declaration of war against the Rey and his kingdom. Like that La Guerra de la Ciudadela, The Citadel War, had begun. Initially it was thought that all La Legión had to do was seize Casa Roja and from there march on La Ciudadela where the paisanos would hopefully rebel. With their aid, Mendoza would have nearly 1,000 fighters and easily win. However after Casa Roja was garrisoned with extra troops and initial raids repelled, Pancho Mendoza faced the hard truth that his army was not enough. However from this failure came Medina's time to shine when he spearheaded the guerilla warfare strategy that defined the legion's approach to the war for over a decade. Guerilla Warfare While Mendoza knew guerilla warfare would be necessary all along, it was Hector Medina who streamlined it as the main tactic of the legion. The hope was that by pillaging the caravans that La Ciudadela relied on that the kingdom's economic might would be lost, inviting weakness. This strategy was devised by Mendoza and defined by Medina who quickly distinguished himself as an effective leader. Knowing survival and having the patience to wait for days if needed. He honed his marksmanship and proved a natural at picking off caravan leaders and guards, ransacking them, and fleeing into the wilderness. He became the top raider of the People's Legion, taking in forty caravans in the year of 2273. His loyalty, skill,and willing to kill for his cause got him close to Mendoza. By 2274 he was the top lieutenant of Mendoza along with Ashley Goddard. Four years later when Goddard left Mendoza for his infidelity, he became the closest man to Mendoza and the Legion's second in command. However he was widely unknown until at his hometown he struck the Citadel the largest defeat they had suffered up to that date. Battle of Pocas Plantas It was 2278 and despite being Mendoza's top lieutenant, Medina was unknown to the region. While Mendoza was known as an infamous Marxist militia leader and the number three man of the legion, the fast-draw Texan pistolero Ryan Quaker, known as the Communist Kid was feared as a gunslinging opportunist. However when Rey Cristobol and Duquel Francisco Carlitos Montoya, the chief military officer of La Ciudadela decided they would expand their meager kingdom to encompass Medina's hometown of Pocas Plantas, Hector would have his moment in the sun. Word reached Cresta Confederada of the Rey's plans in early May and come mid May Medina personally led a detachment of forty legionnaires to his hometown, mainly to protect his family. They arrived in late May to find a garrison of nearly seventy soldiers including several members of the Guardia del Rey, La Ciudadela's special forces. Outgunned and outnumbered, Median stationed his men outside of town as he slipped into his home. It was the plan of the Citadel to annex the town and make all its occupants swear fealty to Rey Cristobol and he found them all holed up on the largest farm in Pocas Plantas, that owned by Juan del Rio. The farm had a barn, a large farmhouse, a well, and a slaughterhouse for the herd of fifty cattle that del Rio owned. The troopers had fortified the area with machine guns and kept constant overlook with the soldiers being stationed in the barn and the officers keeping the house. Medina realized an assault on the del Rio farm was necessary. The soldiers would only leave to defend the fields of crops that they intended to seize for the war effort and while burning them would have coaxed them out, it would have left Pocas Plantas famished. Thus Medina went to the cantina and spoke with his old friends about forming a militia. He discovered the town was receptive to the idea but had a problem, all privately owned firearms had been confiscated by the soldiers who were storing them in the basement of the del Rio farmhouse. The confiscation had been brutal and very effective, between the nearly one hundred able-bodied men and women in town only seven or eight guns could be produced. If the townsmen were armed then the farmer militia along with his men would easily beat the garrison, thus Hector devised a plan to get the paisanos their guns. He armed them with farming tools and had them charge at the house from the south while his legionnaires stampeded del Rio's cattle making it impossible for soldiers to get from the barn to the house. Additionally, the legionnaires laid down suppressing fire to prevent the soldiers in the barn from getting to the house. In the home, Hector personally led the farmers through the hallways as they went room to room hacking Citadel officers and guards apart with shovels and machetes while others went downstairs for their guns. Once it had been cleared, the legionnaires numbered over a hundred and the barn was defended now by about twenty soldados. After realizing how much fire was being laid down upon them, the king's men waved a pre-War Mexican flag out the door, a commonly accepted symbol on the border for a truce, equivalent to a white flag of old. Hector personally went out to negotiate with their leader and made his terms clear, that the soldiers would surrender and be brought back to Cresta Confederada to be held as prisoners of war. The commander of the Citadel forces refused, demanding that his men be allowed to return unarmed to La Ciudadela. Medina scoffed at the proposal and left, he would end the battle by having a runner with a torch sprint up to the barn and set it ablaze. As the building caught fire, the soldiers ran out unarmed and choking on smoke. Per Medina's orders, they were shot down. In two hours on June 2nd, 2278 The Battle of Pocas Plantas had claimed the lives of over fifty men including eleven militia, three legionnaires, and forty-one men from La Ciudadela including three noble officers and two Guardia del Rey. The last casualty of the battle was Juan del Rio who was found hiding in his shed. As he had welcomed the soldiers onto his farm and collaborated with the Citadel. As Citadel troops had planed to force the paisanos of Pocas Plantas to become serfs of the Rey, had taken crops, had stolen drinks from the cantina, had confiscated the townspeople's guns, and had been responsible for the gang rape of a young woman, the people showed del Rio no mercy. With Medina leading the mob, Juan del Rio was scalped alive, tarred and feathered, paraded around Pocas Plantas on a rail, tied to a post outside the cantina, and then shot by a firing squad. A sign placed around his neck read "Traidor", a Spanish cognate for traitor. Now that the battle had been concluded, Pocas Plantas became secure legion territory with the Citadel humiliated and Medina became a household name, known better by his nickname "El Lobo del Este", the Wolf of the East. "El Lobo del Este" This nom de guerre was given to him for his ferocity at Pocas Plantas and the fact that he was from this small town located to the east of most of the fighting. Since the battle his name became feared as stories of him grew, some true and some not. La Ciudadela considered him the top man in the field for Mendoza and thus put a considerable amount of money up for whoever killed this man. After word came out of his guerilla tactics every caravan that got hit from then out was blamed on this Wolf of the East. He replaced Jacob Quaker as the most feared legion lieutenant to the Rey and became something of a folk hero. While Mendoza was a card house owner before the war and Quaker was viewed as a mercenary, Hector Medina was the real deal for those farmers on the border sympathetic to Communism. A farmer himself with a family who fought for a better society for that family was something inspirational. More and more found that they could identify and sympathize with the cause of La Legión now that this God-fearing farmer was among their most prominent members. While he lacked charisma, his image, backstory, and reputation attracted more to the cause in three years than Mendoza's oftentimes pretentiously worded speeches and pamphlets ever had. It was noted in La Ciudadela that Hector Medina was viewed as more of a threat than Mendoza as it was feared that if Mendoza was killed and Medina replaced him that the People's Legion would grow stronger. Medina participated in the assault on Casa Roja in 2281, assisting the Juan Pepe's legion auxiliary unit, Los Hermanos de Sangre in the assault. After securing the outpost, Medina left the outpost along with the rest of them to participate in the Ride Around Cristobol. Here the Citadel had sent a hundred soldiers to retake Casa Roja, thus the legion abandoned the post and rode parallel to them about a mile apart back the Citadel where they burned the crops there to strain the Rey. When the troopers found Casa Roja deserted they immediately turned around to go back to help the Citadel but found that Medina and the rest of the legionnaires had went around them again, circling back to Casa Roja to re-fortify it. After this humiliating blow, Medina went east again, hoping to raid more caravans and rally more paisanos to join the communist militia for the final assault on La Ciudadela. He returned to Casa Roja in late October to prepare for the Citadel attack, which was only barely repelled at a great cost of life. Medina would be the last life lost in the battle, being shot in the back of the head by Ryan Quaker, to assure the other man's power. Personality Hector Medina is a man of convictions and values. Raised a hardworking Roman Catholic paisano in Pocas Plantas and a father of two, Medina maintains a strict moral and religious code that many consider him a religious zealot. He always keeps in his pack a Bible and is known to read it by the light of a campfire, drawing on verse and psalm to seek guidance in his fight. Like Mendoza, Medina sees Communism as a semi-religious mission despite the fact that pure Communism rejects any and all religions. It is his belief that Communism is justified by Catholicism and the many charities of Jesus and his commandment for the rich to give what they have to the poor. Medina is a man of charity and compassion for those who were raised like him, dirt poor and scrounging to survive. However compassionate he may be to the underprivileged, he extends no mercy to those who he sees as the exploiters of the poor. Those who he believes make their fortunes off the backs of others he sees as the true evil in the wasteland. Comancheros and the nobility of La Ciudadela are his sworn enemies and his reputation for showing them no quarter is known throughout the border country. He views himself as a righteous man and has no problem passing down judgment and sentence to those who upset his moral code, this has caused tension in the ranks of the People's Legion for his hostility to bringing mercenaries and bandits in and for his loud-spoken condemnation of Pancho Mendoza, a noted adulterer. However, while he may be a violent and merciless warrior with rifle and machete, at heart, Medina is a caring and gentle man. He fights for what he thinks is right and has no problem laying down his life if he must for his children, his wife, his comrades, or his fellow poor dirt farmers. While extreme and a zealot, his heart and intentions are pure, but good intentions often lead astray as is feared if he ever takes command of the legion. While he has a heart of gold, his tongue is certainly not silver. He is a man with wisdom but lacking in charisma. He never had any formal education at all or any training in the art of fine diction, when he speaks it is in a simple tone with little regard to sensitive subjects or delicate phrasing. He speaks his mind and simply that, lacking the intellect of men like Mendoza. This has been seen as a blessing and a curse. Appearance Hector is a simple and strong man. Physically he is a giant of a man and with the heels of his combat boots and his tall sombrero he is nearly seven feet tall. Without these articles of clothing however he is still just a hair under six and a half feet. His muscles are large and defined and his stature like an Adonis. While his leader, Mendoza is a shorter skinnier character, Medina stands tall like a mountain with a large bushy mustache over his lips. His towering stature is notably intimidating in close person and his fists seem like they could rip a man in half with ease. However it has also been noted to be a disadvantage, Citadel troopers and special forces sniper teams are told and trained repeatedly to look for a large and hulking figure when fighting legionnaires as it is well known that Hector is probably the tallest man the Communists have. Clothing for him is simple. He believes adamantly that fancy or overly decorative baroque clothing is a sign of capitalist oppression, made by long tedious hours by underpaid or enslaved paisanos. He has given orders during raids that no man who wears a tie or a suit shall be spared, this policy has caused some trouble with his Commissar as Pancho Mendoza is noted to almost daily don a tie. While Mendoza dresses somewhat modestly, Hector goes all the way. He wears old corduroy trousers, a straw sombrero, and an old khaki cotton shirt and jacket, sometimes donning a sack cloth duster. His boots are salvaged U.S. Army surplus and his gunbelt is an old police duty belt bought off a scavenger. He wears no jewelry save for a crucifix necklace under his shirt which is a simple iron chain and tin cross. His simple clothing is a testament to his support for the working man and a habit from his youth working long hours in the fields of Pocas Plantas. Equipment Medina is a man who travels light and at the ready at all times. He disdains any unnecessary equipment which he thinks is more of a luxury than a necessity or he thinks slows him down. That being said, his pack will never contain any spirits or drugs or even painkillers. In his pack he keeps a bible, an aluminum canteen, five or six pounds of canned beans and meat, a pack of matches, a lighter, a bandanna, and a needle and thread for stitches on wounds. His weaponry is also simple, he fancies a lever-action rifle chambered in the venerable .45 Long Colt and keeps a Gaucho revolver also chambered for .45 LC so that he only needs to carry ammunition of one caliber. His revolver has a five inch barrel, oak grips, and an unfluted cylinder. It is made of a titanium alloy to give it strength. He prefers these old vaquero guns over semi-automatic rifles or automatic pistols for their durability and simplicity as his tactics of warfare involve putting his weapons through trials by fire in the natural terrain on a daily basis. Even in the dust and dirt and mud, a revolver will still function where an automatic can jam up, and a lever-action while not as reliable as say a bolt gun is leagues beyond a semi-automatic. However, he does carry in his bag one semi-automatic .22LR handgun. However this weapon is for hunting small game in the wilderness that the larger .45LC would obliterate such as squirrels and small birds and possum. He has no horse that is his own due to his shortcomings as a rider, however if necessary he will mount one. That being said his boots are salvaged pre-War surplus from the U.S. Army and padded for comfort on long marches, one of the only comforts he will accept. Category:Mexico Category:Tamaulipas Category:Characters